Over the years, I’ve learned not to make long lists of goals for the new year. This year I feel especially opposed to the idea.

As I reflect over the last twelve months of coaching, I see women exploring the awareness steps needed to make genuine changes. These are far more necessary for women than making another neat and orderly list. One of the themes that’s especially popular is deep, unrecognized craving.

Beneath a layer or two of task-focus are true longings that ripple along steadily. These longings tap and stroke, waiting for us to raise our busy heads. When we actually take a moment to offer our attention, we invite something vital to surface. This is when our desire gets its turn.

Without our participation, however, this rippling may begin to feel like an irritable, inner tic. We might even have mislabeled one of these long ago as procrastination trying to tempt us away from what we plan to do. But ignoring a true hunger is a common cause of slow energy leaks within us, the kind that slowly add to our feelings of exhaustion.

So, how do we tell the difference between an important desire and a simple distraction (or even procrastination)? We have to be willing to be uncomfortable for a moment, willing to hand our attention over to the tapping for a moment. We have to trust — which can feel counter-intuitive as you race around, trying to get things done before the end of the day. But what if it’s actually very intuitive? What if it IS our intuition that’s been tapping?

One way to explore this question is to stop looking forward into this new year. Try stopping just long enough to hear a whisper, or clarify a feeling about what’s beneath the obvious. Perhaps you’ll hear a long-ignored priority, or a different truth behind a ripple you have running in the background right now. You might find something you knew was there all along. But then again, you might be surprised at what you hear.